


Had we but world enough, and time

by Segolène (SecretSegolene)



Series: Bad endings [1]
Category: Tokyo Babylon
Genre: Bad Ending, Dialogue Scene, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:08:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27195577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecretSegolene/pseuds/Segol%C3%A8ne
Summary: -Bad ending-The millennium renewed itself, and our lovers found a brittle compromise. But the villain is the call of fate that rages at being eluded. The villains are humans and their laws and their pride.Above the assassin’s home, the sun will not stand still; the assassin makes it run.
Relationships: Sakurazuka Seishirou/Sumeragi Subaru
Series: Bad endings [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1985290
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Had we but world enough, and time

**Author's Note:**

> Marvell: _“...now, like amorous birds of prey, rather at once our time devour than languish in his slow-chapped power.”_
> 
> Just our boys having a chat in a garden. Another accidental bad ending.

They stepped off the veranda and onto the courtyard’s rough stone paving. The rosebushes had grown all over the end of the path, and the pond was almost concealed from view by the bent rushes crowding its edge. 

“And here,” Seishirou said, gesturing vaguely to a clump of thorns at the corner of the garden that probably once bore leaves and flowers, “Is where I succeeded to my current title.”

“Your current... you mean this is where-“

“My mother was last alive, yes.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“What for? I had nothing else to do. Weren’t you working when you were much younger than that?”

“I... didn’t mean about the work.”

“Uh. Right, I see. My bad, I guess.”

“It’s OK. You don’t have to.”

“OK. Well, here is the tiny hole where a stray cat used to get in all the time. My mother thought the dead pigeons were me, but they were actually all the work of Tabi-san.”

An oversized hawk, speckled brown and strangely translucent, careened elegantly over the high walls and settled on Seishirou’s shoulder. 

“Ah, you’re back. Oh? Well, thank you. Please continue to keep watch.”

“They’re here. Well, they’ll be a few minutes longer than anticipated, most likely, since I decorated the driveway earlier with some welcoming traps.”

“Isn’t your driveway the entire mountainside?”

“Something like that, yes. Like I said, it’ll make their journey a little longer and less convenient if I’ve done it properly, which of course I will have done.”

“Who are you talking about? Why would you need to delay them with things like traps?”

“Assassins. From my family. Mostly uncles, to be exact, some cousins, a few great aunts in the mix...”

“Why are they coming here?”

“For me, of course.”

“Please, I don’t understand.”

“They’re here to kill me. They want to appoint the next Sakurazukamori but I won’t let them. They think I’m no longer fit for the job.”

“Why, all of a sudden?”

“Because of you.”

“...”

“No time to waste. Subaru, I hope you understand that this little party sent by my other aunts and uncles is very serious. Both about what they’re doing and how they plan to do it.”

“How do they-“

“I can’t be sure, but their job is pretty much just refining a way to kill the current head of the family if he or she gets too carried away with themselves. I was the one asked to put Setsuka in her place after all.”

“This is nothing like-“

“Now, Subaru, I want you to listen very carefully. The situation could get dangerous, so I want to know that you will do everything that I say, exactly as I say it. Can you promise that?”

“Of course. I promise.”

“Great. Before they get here, I want you to kill me.”

“You want me to... what?”

“Why ask when you clearly heard me?”

“You want... well, that’s impossible. Why would I do that?”

“Because you just promised to do everything I say to the letter.”

“This doesn’t count! This is like that awful rigged bet you tried to pull ages ago. I haven’t promised anything like this.”

“Fine. Then I’ll tell you why, only I have to be quick because I’m sure they’ve figured out how to avoid most of my traps by now.”

“Sei-“

“Shut up. My family has decided that they no longer want me as their head. To be honest, it stings but I don’t care that much. The problem is, they won’t leave me alive if my position is replaced. There are some perfectly sensible reasons for this which I won’t go into for the sake of time. I refuse to be killed by them. I can’t think of anything more insulting to my pride and my entire career up until now. Only the Sakurazukamori is supposed to kill the Sakurazukamori. That’s how it works and even my mother had that. No way am I going to let myself be neutralised like a prisoner in a firing squad. No, I want my death to be interesting and symbolic and I want to see if my mother really was crazy or if she was onto something.”

“I don’t understand-“

“You don’t need to. Subaru, I want you to kill me. Isn’t that enough?”

“...”

“It has to be you. Subaru, do it.”

Subaru shook his head. Seishirou took one of his hands gently but firmly. 

“It’s ok. It’s easy. See, curve your palm like this. Straighten your fingertips. Aim straight for the heart. You have the strength to do it perfectly, I know.”

“I can’t. I won’t.”

“You must. Or somebody else will and you already know I don’t want that.”

“They can’t beat you. They can’t...beat both of us.”

“Thank you. I’m flattered, really, but did you think I would let a speck of blood be spilled by those hands of yours besides mine?”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“I know. But I mean it. I forbid you to kill anyone.”

“I wasn’t going to-“

“Listen to me. The Sakurazuka family does not tolerate abdicators, which is essentially what they have already decided I am. They will kill me. They will know how. What, did you think the head of the family had free reign? The bloodline wouldn’t last two generations if that were the case. Certainly, Setsuka would have done something truly detrimental had she been left alive another year or two. Anyway, and stop shaking your head. Kill me. I’m asking you. Take my place.”

“No, I won’t.”

The hawk was back. It perched on the stone wall this time, and stayed there while Seishirou shot it a glance. 

“Didn’t you believe in something better than eternal recurrence?” he said, turning back to Subaru as if there had been no interruption. 

“What are you talking about?”

“That essay you wrote once. Hokuto floated over your shoulder fussing and I made you blush repeatedly with crude jokes. Sorry, sorry, my point - just this once, I think I can afford a little irrationality. I’ll believe in this better alternative of yours, where in another countless array of timelines where our universe starts the same way and ends the same way, some of the parts in between might play out differently. Chaos, human will, whatever - I don’t care. I’ll believe it only if you do, right now, and kill me.”

“No. Let go.”

Seishirou wrapped a forceful hand around Subaru’s left, curled the palm into a cone and straightened the fingertips with tight tension and a little binding magic on the muscles. 

“No. Stop it. I don’t want to-“

“Subaru. It was my pleasure to have met you.”

Seishirou smiled warmly, and plunged Subaru’s hand into his own beating heart.

**Author's Note:**

> _The game of love has no victor. Lying earth in earth, he knew that he had failed._
> 
> [Restart?]


End file.
